With the approach of the Club World Cup and the turnover in the front office, one can forgive a fan if they haven’t paid too much attention to last week’s Serie A schedule release. There’s been a hell of a lot going on.
But now that Juventus knows how the 2025-26 league schedule will go, it’s inevitable to start casting forward in time and speculating about how the new season might go.
That’s exactly what we’ll do now, as we bring you our annual summer piece highlighting the five most intriguing games at first glance in the new schedule.
Round 6 vs. AC Milan
The schedule makers didn’t make the beginning of Igor Tudor’s first full season in charge very easy.
This match against Milan comes at the end of a brutal four-game stretch that sees the Bianconeri play Inter, Hellas Verona, Atalanta, and Milan. Atalanta and the Milanese clubs are all contenders for Europe next year, if not the Serie A title, and a trip to the Bentegodi is never a fun prospect. There’s going to be a few Champions League games thrown in there as well.
Oh, did I mention that this game will be the return of Massimiliano Allegri to the Allianz for the first time as an opponent in almost exactly 12 years?
All three of the big games are at home, which should help, although it also highlights an odd trend that sees Juve play the majority of their games against big teams at home in the andata, which will make the run-in tricky.
That early-season run will test what Tudor has managed to do with the team — and, given the man in the away dugout, will likely be a specific evaluation of the strides the team has made in breaking down a low block.
If Juve can get out of this game with maximum points — especially if they’ve successfully navigated the previous three matches — it will be an early marker to the rest of the league that they’ll need to start worrying about the Old Lady again. And, on a personal level, it would be so incredibly satisfying.
Round 22 vs. Napoli
Fast forwarding quite a bit, this January fixture against the reigning champions (barf) will come at a critical time, especially if Juve do find themselves in the mix near the top of the table. This is one of the few big games Juve will have at home in the second half of the season, and by this point we’ll have a clear idea of what Juventus are and where we think they’re going.
Napoli are going to be going through some changes of their own. They’ll need to bulk up their squad in order to cope with the added workload of the Champions League, although Antonio Conte has never been known for his penchant to rotate his squad. This game will be at the very end of January, just before the final League Phase game, so we’ll know for sure how they’ve handled the added strain.
This will obviously be a huge game, regardless of what Juve are chasing at this point in the year. Depending on how the table has worked itself out up to that point, it could be highly influential in multiple ways.
Round 25 at Inter
It’s pretty impossible to put together this list without putting the Derby d’Italia on it at least once.
Much like the Napoli game, this game could have serious implications in how the top of the table shapes up. Inter will have had two-thirds of the season to have shown what they will be under Cristian Chivu, who earned the right to replace the departing Simone Inzaghi after guiding Parma to survival after parachuting into a lost campaign.
That performance included the 1-0 win over Juve in Parma that nearly tanked Juve’s hopes for the Champions League this season. Inter still have Beppe Marotta pulling the strings in the front office, meaning they’ll always be a well-built team, so it’ll take a whole lot of Pazza Inter to truly put them in the tank next season. (Although, that would be nice.) Look for this to be as ornery and hard-fought as any derby, with the result again likely to be an important one for both sides.
Round 34 at AC Milan
These guys again?
I try to avoid putting a team here twice, but Milan have the distinction of being the back end of important-looking stretches on both sides of the season. In this case, it’s the end of a three-match stretch against Atalanta (away) and Bologna (home). All three opponents will enter the season with aspirations for Europe, if not more, and the string comes at a point when every result will be critical.
Much like early in the year, how Juve handles this stretch, with Milan at its end, will set the tone for the rest of the run-up.
Round 38 at Torino
How’s about a Derby della Mole to end the season?
This game is always fraught with meaning between the two Turin clubs, and as the final matchday of the year could also be the decider for whatever Juve might be playing for by season’s end. If Juve are in need of a win to clinch something, whether it be a European spot or even more, you can bet that the Granata will want to spoil the party.
As a decisive match, you couldn’t ask for anything with higher stakes. Hopefully, Juve will have a whole lot to play for by then.
